With lawyer Vanessa Ash, your defence is carefully chosen based on the specifics of your case and which area has the strongest avenues of defence. Your lawyer will have insights into each of these types of defence. If you don’t have a lawyer, call Vanessa Ash today for a free, confidential chat about your circumstances.
There are some classic defence moves that Vanessa Ash makes, and while this list isn’t extensive, it can give you some clues as to how your case could possibly be argued.
The Defensive Homicide Defence
Defensive homicide was set in legislative concrete in Victoria in 2005, and is the situation whereby a person kills another person in circumstances that essentially make it murder. It can become defensive homicide, which carries a 20-year maximum prison sentence.
The Factual Dispute (Denial) Defence
A factual dispute is where the circumstances of an offence are in dispute. The accused may deny any involvement in the offending at all, and generally looks like a flat-out denial of involvement.
The Honest and Reasonable Mistake Defence
Intent is everything here, so if – in liability cases only – the prosecution doesn’t need to prove that the person accused of the offending actually intended to commit the offence.
The Impossibility Defence
There are certain situations whereby it was an actual impossibility that the accused could have committed the offence, and the impossibility defence argues this. Physically unable If the accused is physically incapable of committing the offence for some reason.
The Sudden or Extraordinary Emergency Defence
This defence applies only to murder, manslaughter and defensive homicide, with the sudden or extraordinary emergency relating to events that make a person not guilty of these charges. These circumstances are sudden or extraordinary, and an emergency, and committing…
Incorrect Charges Defence
If you are charged with something that no longer exists (it may have been abolished) or that doesn’t match the offence or alleged offending, the incorrect charges defence can be useful in changing the charges and possibly even getting a reduction in charges….
Intoxication Defence
While being intoxicated is a poor excuse for most things, by law you are recognised as being different to normal, and therefore you can use this as a defence for some of your actions that had you been in your right mind, you wouldn’t have done. This is applied…
The Necessity Defence
When a person freely admits that committed an act (the offence), but says it was an act of necessity that avoided irreparable harm to themselves or another person, the necessity defence can be applied. Evidence must be presented whereby the person accused of the…
The Mental Impairment Defence
Mental impairment as a defence can be useful when the accused individual either didn’t understand what they were doing, or didn’t know what they were doing was wrong. There is a special section of the Crimes Act 1997 that deals with mental impairment and…
Suicide Pact Defence
In probably one of the most unfortunate circumstances, the suicide pact is a real defence that can be used if a death deal goes wrong, and one of you survives because your suicide partner didn’t kill you, but you killed them, essentially making you technically a…
Provocation Defence
Until 2005, those charged with murder could downgrade the charge to manslaughter using the provocation defence. This is no longer available in Victoria. This defence was based around a person suddenly losing control due to being provoked, but was very controversial…
The Defence of Self Defence
If you were forced to defend yourself with reasonable grounds, the law protects you – your actions may be deemed as necessary to protect yourself. This is ‘reasonable belief’, and sits at the crux of the self-defence defence, with there being two…
The Duress Defence
A defence of duress is used when a person admits fully that they committed a crime, but that they did so because they were under immediate physical threat if the act was not committed. The Threat These types of threats must be ‘present and continuing,…
Mental Illness and Impairment Defences
There are many types of defence of actions used. Here we briefly summarise what each means. Automatism – insane and sane, mental illness This is a mental impairment defence whereby the person being accused of a crime actually committed the offence involuntarily….
Claim of Right Defence in Child Stealing Charges
The Claim of Right – who can and can’t steal a child without being prosecuted This is a defence against the stealing of a child. There are three different child stealing offences in Australia, with those relating to the mother, the father of an…
Sex Offences – Consent Defence
There are some ways to defend sex offences. Consent Consent is hotly contested in many sexual offences, with rape and indecent assault being the primary cases this is relevant. According to the Crimes Act 2009: Consent means ‘free agreement’.
Write your own story. Call Vanessa Ash and Associates today.